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Ask HN: Best Resources for SaaS UX / UI Design

by thehodge on 11/6/19, 4:59 PM with 4 comments

Hey folks,

I run a small SaaS application that is 2 years old, it's doing okay and slowly growing BUT as time has gone by and we've added more and more features the interface has gotten a little.... messy.

I'd love to be pointed into the direction of some recommended books, videos or blogs to read on how to get out of this and point me in the direciton of user experience.

  • by jmhyer123 on 11/6/19, 5:11 PM

    I highly recommend https://refactoringui.com/book/. It's not SaaS specific but it very much approaches design from a developer's perspective which has helped me immensely in understanding and implementing small tweaks that make huge improvements.

    I also recommend watching his YouTube videos. They can get long but it's nice to see the thought process behind a visual refresh/refactor from beginning to end. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxqiDtkXtOCNJdckODHk9YA/vid...

  • by enhdless on 11/8/19, 7:28 AM

    For general design resources, Hack Design has curated a really good collection of introductory design lessons: https://hackdesign.org/

    For specific design questions, I like to search the UX Stack Exchange (https://ux.stackexchange.com/) whenever I'm unsure of a UI design. For example, if I'm designing a pagination component or error messages, there are probably relevant questions and answers related to best practices.

    I would also recommend familiarizing yourself with the human-centered design process - nothing beats hands-on user research and prototyping. Identify which parts of your interface are causing the most friction, why, and what users are actually trying to achieve.

    A lot of UI can be improved with basic visual design concepts - typography, color, spacing, visual hierarchy, composition.

  • by skarras on 11/10/19, 10:18 AM

    You can use this tool to https://www.visualeyes.design/ to get attention maps of a design.